The Year 2026 :
I am sitting in the house playing with my 3 year old son , when my agent called .
I had taken a sabbatical for a year . Years of managing a top side had taken its toll on me and my family , my wife complained that she never saw me and then she gave birth to a boy and was adamant that she wanted me around when the boy grew up . I gave into the demands .
It was very hard explaining the stuff to Tom and John but then they had to agree on my decision , I had promised my wife that I would give up after I had taken United off their perch and I had managed to do that last season . Liverpool were on 25 premier league titles whereas United were on 24 . Liverpool had won the champions league for 3 more times before I left them at the top of the league and they had become one of the best teams in the world
I got a lot of offers from all the big teams to manage them , but I insisted that I was on a sabbatical and nothing would change my mind . Big clubs like Real Madrid and Barcelona also approached me .
All the top leagues had become monotonous in a way that only 1 team had been winning everything in the league
1)Liverpool in England
2) Dortmund in Germany
3)Atletico Madrid in Spain
4)AC Milan in Italy
5) PSG in France
And they always won by huge margins . I was just talking my agent , and I told him that I would not manage any such team that was already winning , but some team that needed winning . My agent would not agree stating that it could backfire .
I was incharge of Liverpool from 2013 to 2025 and I had seen many lows but the highs were brilliant . European nights back at Anfield and then winning the Champions League again , the league titles everything
Marco Van Basten had then taken over Liverpool after I had left and I always looked at the telly when they used to play . They were still playing very well and were still topping the table . I was satisfied that even after the transition period the club was doing well and Van Basten was a fantastic manager .
The Call:
I got a call from the other day from Christophe Boutin , director of Lyon . I told him I was on a sabbatical , but he just said that he had just called me just because he wanted to generally talk to me about a few things
He admitted saying that someone like me would never sign for a team like Lyon when there were teams like Real Madrid and Barcelona waiting for me to come out of the sabbatical . I just laughed and said nothing .
They were going to a rough time . Surely the were consistently finishing 4th or 5th but the people also were tired of PSG winning everything there is .
Monaco also spread their money around and got the best talents around had made it even difficult for Lyon to win the title for a very long time
From being one of the dark horses for the Champions League to now being a club that was facing a hard time to get into the top 3 was indeed difficult
I told Boutin that it was nothing like that and I would definitely take Lyon into consideration when I would decide to come back .
His words hit me . He said he wanted the Giants to Fall . He was tired of money running football and wanted football to win at the end of the day not money
In a span of 10 minutes my decision was made .
I was going to France . It was going to be difficult but I was going to bring the Giants down . Either I'd get fired or find my place in History was to be seen .
This would definitely be the true test of my managerial ability
I am sitting in the house playing with my 3 year old son , when my agent called .
I had taken a sabbatical for a year . Years of managing a top side had taken its toll on me and my family , my wife complained that she never saw me and then she gave birth to a boy and was adamant that she wanted me around when the boy grew up . I gave into the demands .
It was very hard explaining the stuff to Tom and John but then they had to agree on my decision , I had promised my wife that I would give up after I had taken United off their perch and I had managed to do that last season . Liverpool were on 25 premier league titles whereas United were on 24 . Liverpool had won the champions league for 3 more times before I left them at the top of the league and they had become one of the best teams in the world
I got a lot of offers from all the big teams to manage them , but I insisted that I was on a sabbatical and nothing would change my mind . Big clubs like Real Madrid and Barcelona also approached me .
All the top leagues had become monotonous in a way that only 1 team had been winning everything in the league
1)Liverpool in England
2) Dortmund in Germany
3)Atletico Madrid in Spain
4)AC Milan in Italy
5) PSG in France
And they always won by huge margins . I was just talking my agent , and I told him that I would not manage any such team that was already winning , but some team that needed winning . My agent would not agree stating that it could backfire .
I was incharge of Liverpool from 2013 to 2025 and I had seen many lows but the highs were brilliant . European nights back at Anfield and then winning the Champions League again , the league titles everything
Marco Van Basten had then taken over Liverpool after I had left and I always looked at the telly when they used to play . They were still playing very well and were still topping the table . I was satisfied that even after the transition period the club was doing well and Van Basten was a fantastic manager .
The Call:
I got a call from the other day from Christophe Boutin , director of Lyon . I told him I was on a sabbatical , but he just said that he had just called me just because he wanted to generally talk to me about a few things
He admitted saying that someone like me would never sign for a team like Lyon when there were teams like Real Madrid and Barcelona waiting for me to come out of the sabbatical . I just laughed and said nothing .
They were going to a rough time . Surely the were consistently finishing 4th or 5th but the people also were tired of PSG winning everything there is .
Monaco also spread their money around and got the best talents around had made it even difficult for Lyon to win the title for a very long time
From being one of the dark horses for the Champions League to now being a club that was facing a hard time to get into the top 3 was indeed difficult
I told Boutin that it was nothing like that and I would definitely take Lyon into consideration when I would decide to come back .
His words hit me . He said he wanted the Giants to Fall . He was tired of money running football and wanted football to win at the end of the day not money
In a span of 10 minutes my decision was made .
I was going to France . It was going to be difficult but I was going to bring the Giants down . Either I'd get fired or find my place in History was to be seen .
This would definitely be the true test of my managerial ability
